West Meadows Estates

West Meadows Estates – A Rocky Start

I walked through the development last weekend and believe I have a pretty good idea of what’s going on with West Meadows Estates and what their development plan is. The last input I had was that homes were scheduled to be completed around December of 2017 but this appears to be moving out until early 2018 because of all the activity with grading and the rocks.

Standing on the frontage road, to the right, or east, the property ends close to the old wood barn that had a home and shed nearby. The home and shed have been removed and the barn is being taken apart for the old barn wood. This area has a driveway and level area that I assume will be the initial entrance into the development once the barn is removed. Near this driveway on the eastern edge of the property, lots are being graded and smoothed that will support the first new single story homes that will be built in Phase 1. Also there will be a sales office in that area. The left side of the property is lower and closer to the Truckee river so it has considerably more rocks/boulders than the East and North side of the property.

Boulders ready for pickup

Initially, they were planning on developing all 329 homes in one phase. A couple months ago I heard that West Meadows Estates was splitting the 329 planned homes into two groups – one group being single story homes and the other group being two story homes. Based on what I am seeing, I expect the single story homes to be on the eastern side of the development and the two story homes to be on the western side.

Why do I expect that? Because the western side is a bit lower and closer to the river and inundated with rocks – ranging in size from as big as a VW Bug to fist sized rocks to pebbles. They will have a very difficult task to clean out the rocks on that end of the property and it will take awhile for them to finish that task. Clearly, the Truckee River was untamed a long time ago and moved 100’s of thousands if not millions of boulders/rocks down from the Sierra.

They are still moving dirt to prepare for the levels where the homes will be built and where roads will be – looks like the homes will be several feet above road level. They are starting at the edge of the mountain and working down towards the highway as they level the area for lots and roads.

There will be an HOA for West Meadows Estates – costs are not defined yet.

Rocks located on lower part of the development (closer to the river)

They dig these up and pile them up and then haul them out of the area. I estimate there are several weeks worth of rock moving before this area is ready for home ready lots. Some of these rocks are as big as a small car and difficult to move.

They have smoothed out the soil on the eastern side and have added additional soil that is relatively rock free so the lots that they have prepared on that end of the property look reasonable to start building on soon.

Incidentally, if you drive from that area toward Somersett you will see a staging area for huge rocks that they have piled up and will continue piling the big rocks there just to get them out of the development area.

The above picture shows an incredible amount of rocks on one of the lots in the lower section of West Meadows.

Speaking of rocks, note the picture below where they are using a huge truck to move several large rocks out of the area. Note the worker nearby – he is about as tall as the tires on the truck and smaller than the rocks in the back of the truck.

Earth mover moving several large boulders

Lots in the higher Eastern section of West Meadows Estates. Note that there are very few rocks and the lots are ready for development.

West Meadows Estates Phase 1 and 2

D.R. Horton has recently decided to build the development in 2 phases – The first phase will be 223 single story homes. They have pushed out the schedule for phase 1 from Aug of 2017 to the end of Sept and will have sales set up in Oct. for 1st closings in early Feb. As mentioned earlier, these homes will be modeled after homes now being built in Las Vegas – all models will be single story. Since there are no homes started yet and they are still grading I expect this to slip 2-3 months into early 2018. D.R. Horton is what they call a “production builder” that builds 3-4 homes at a time.

Phase 1 Home Sizes/Floorplans

They will build several models – all single story. The smallest one will be 1910 sq ft and the largest will be 3035 sq ft.

Final prices are not available but, based on land pricing in Verdi and the cost of moving all these rocks and extensive grading, I expect the prices to be a bit higher than the homes in Las Vegas – but that’s a guess at this point.

For those of you that submitted your names and email addresses to me, I added your names to the “first to know” list at D.R. Horton. What this means is that you will be notified ahead of the general public when the development is open and can be previewed. At present this is estimated to be early in 2018.

If you haven’t signed up but want to get on the list please use the form below for your name and email.

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Higher View showing graded lots on Eastern side ready for development of West Meadows Estates Homes

Sales details are not available yet since they have not yet hired a sales manager for West Meadows Estates and are concentrating on construction at this point. They will have a sales office opening when they have some homes built on the property.

Let me know if you have any questions. I will publish updates as I obtain additional information about this development.